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18 June 2011

Jolly Holidays

Hello again all, I'm back! I was on my holidays for this year. My family and I went for a six day break to lovely seaside Blackpool! And it was a great opportunity for some shopping, I love going away to new places, it gives you a chance to plunder in a whole new set of shops, and this is great especially with charity shops, and I found a ton of those while I was away.

Blackpool Tower and beautiful shop fronts.


Getting to Blackpool itself is quite an adventure, we left for the docks on Sunday morning at around 6AM'ish, then spent three hours on board the ferry traveling over to Stranraer, in Scotland. Unfortunately the weather didn't seem to be on our side and we had quite a lot of rain. The next bit of the journey I always find very difficult as I suffer quite badly from travel sickness, it's the two hundred mile drive from Stranraer to Blackpool, it takes roughly four hours traveling mainly on motor ways. Although I do love seeing so many new places.

The Winter Gardens in Blackpool.


I usually love the Winter Gardens, not only is it a great venue for shows and entertainment, it also has a great indoor market, with hundreds of stalls selling everything from Star War figures, to vintage jewelery and dresses. So clearly it's a main attraction for me, but last year, during another trip to Blackpool, I discovered the main hall had been closed and the market cut right down to one small room with half a dozen vendors. As you can imagine I was quite concerned, I've seen too many of these types of market close down at home. But this year, worse was to come, we went back to the little one room market and everything was gone! We're not sure if it was closed for refurbishment, but it was completely deserted.
What I want to know is, is there anyone who can shed some light on this mystery?


Clock tower near Abingdon Street Market.


This will have been my eighth visit to Blackpool spanning over....roughly, fifteen years. But I have never seen so much change as I have in this visit. Everything seems to be changing, The Tower, the shops, the promenade even the Pleasure Beach. I'm hoping it'll be a change for the better, but as you all know change can be scary at first.

Bella Italia and other shop fronts.


The town itself is looking really well, and I took the opportunity to visit every shop I could, with occasional stops into the beautiful cafés along the way. I'll hopefully get around to taking some pictures of my Blackpool purchases, and of course post them up on Lookbook. I got a retro wicker picnic basket, I can't wait to try out (if the weather would ease up on the rain). I also got the cutest pair of dungarees and a beautiful new maxi. You would not believe the prices some of the markets sell these gorgeous maxis at! It's shocking

Blackpool's new street art.


Above is another big change in Blackpool's appearance, as well as widening of the promenade these new lights are the newest update Blackpool have added.
Personally I think they look like they came from the film set of “War of the Worlds”.

It's odd, with all this change, there are still little shops in between all the new stuff, that have been there for years upon years, and of course you can't go to Blackpool with enjoying a bit of that seaside retro'ness, I love all the little shops down on the front, they never seem to lose there charm. And when people go Blackpool and not to these shops, it unnerves me, like going to Blackpool and not buying someone a stick of rock!

Holiday shop on sea front.

Happy Summer Everyone!

(Oh and as it turns out it is Summer time! Tuesday is the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year...although in true Belfast City fashion, it is raining monsoon-like. Ah well, at least Summer is here at last. Enjoy!)







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